1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conductive paste composition for an external electrode, capable of having a low flexural modulus so as to be applied to product groups having specifications which require high degrees of reliability, such as electronic apparatuses, high-pressure products, and the like, to thereby absorb impacts, and a multilayer ceramic electronic component fabricated using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among the ceramic electronic components, multilayer ceramic capacitors include a plurality of laminated dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layers interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors have been widely used as components in mobile communications devices, such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like, due to advantages thereof, such as a small size, high capacity, ease of mounting, and the like.
Recently, as demand for small and multi-functional electronic products has increased, chip parts tend to be miniaturized and multi-functional. As a result, demand for small and high-capacity multilayer ceramic capacitors has increased.
To this end, multilayer ceramic capacitors in which a large number of dielectric layers are laminated by reducing thicknesses of the dielectric layers and the internal electrode layers have been fabricated, and thicknesses of external electrodes have also been reduced.
As functions of products requiring high degrees of reliability, such as cars, medical devices, and the like, have been digitalized and demand for digitalized functions in many products has increased, ultra small and ultra high-capacity multilayer ceramic capacitors are required to high degrees of reliability so as to meet the demand for product reliability.
One factor that may cause degradation in reliability may be the occurrence of cracks and the like due to external impacts.
Therefore, to solve the defect detailed above, a paste capable of absorbing impacts is provided between an external electrode layer and a plating layer to absorb an external impact, thereby improving product reliability.
However, there is demand for multilayer ceramic electronic components having higher degrees of reliability so as to be applied to product groups having specifications which require high degrees of reliability, such as electronic apparatuses, high-pressure parts, and the like and therefore, external electrodes are also required to have higher levels of reliability.